U.S. Olympic sprint champion Crawford handed two-year ban

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U.S. sprinter Shawn Crawford given a two-year ban by U.S. Anti-Doping Agency

Crawford punished for failing to give his location for three drugs tests in last 18 months

Crawford won 200 meter gold at the 2004 Olympic Games

It is unclear whether Crawford will appeal the sanction

Sprinter Shawn Crawford might have been coming to the latter part of his athletics career, but his failure to inform doping regulators as to his "whereabouts" has landed the Olympic gold medalist with a two-year ban.

The American, who sprinted to 200 meter gold at the Athens 2004 Games, has been sanctioned after failing to provide the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) with a location for drug testing three times during the past 18 months.

The "whereabouts" rule requires athletes in advance to tell regulators where they are for one hour every day and make themselves available at that time for a drug's test.

The ban means results recorded or prize money won by Crawford on or after November 17, 2012 have been scratched.

CNN contacted Crawford's representative to ask if he will appeal the ban, but the agent was not immediately available for comment.

"Shawn Crawford of Culver City, Calif., an athlete in the sport of track & field, has received a two-year suspension for committing an anti-doping rule violation in which he failed to file his whereabouts information," read a USADA statement.

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EXPAND GALLERY

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EXPAND GALLERY

"Crawford failed to comply with the whereabouts requirements and, as a result, accrued three whereabouts failures within an 18-month period.

"A whereabouts failure for National Testing Pool athletes includes failure to provide required quarterly whereabouts filings and/or failure to be available for testing due to inaccurate or incomplete information provided by the athlete.

"USADA is responsible for the testing and results management process for athletes in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement, and is equally dedicated to preserving the integrity of sport through research initiatives and educational programs."

As well as gold in Athens, which was clinched with a time of 19.79 seconds, Crawford won a silver medal as part of the U.S. 4 x 100 meter relay team.

He was awarded the silver medal in the 200m final at the Beijing Games of 2008 after Churandy Martina was punished for outside of his lane.

According to the Associated Press, Crawford later gave his medal to Martina.